While Valentine’s Day is traditionally a holiday for couples, we think it’s a great day to celebrate love with the whole family. Valentine’s Day is the one day a year eating pastries and chocolate all day long is justified because they’re heart-shaped and it’s a holiday, right?! We have fond memories of Valentine’s Day mornings with our parents, whether it was heart-shaped pancakes for breakfast or a love note from mom and dad! The best part of being a parent is continuing some of those traditions with our own kids or starting new ones.
Valentine’s Day is so much more than a corporate holiday filled with cheesy greeting cards, expensive bouquets of flowers and chocolate gift baskets. When we focus on its core purpose, which is showing our loved ones we care, it’s hard not to swoon over family traditions that strengthen our bonds. If your teens and tweens roll their eyes and pull the ‘it’s a lame commercialised holiday’ card, bring out the heart-shaped donuts until their mouths are too full to complain. Kidding…kind of.
On that note, Valentine’s Day traditions don’t have to all revolve around sugary treats and pastries (although we’re not complaining if they do). Pick some of these sweet and meaningful Valentine’s Day traditions to start with your family.
Valentine’s Day Countdown
Start a countdown to Valentine’s Day with a difference. Instead of marking off the days with a calendar, starting February 1st, stick a heart-shaped note on your kids bedroom door with a reason why you love them. Do this each day in the lead up to Valentine’s Day. Use our cute printable ‘Be Mine’ digital paper set as the background for your love note hearts.
Valentine’s Day Pancakes and Pajamas
Pancakes just seem like the perfect Valentine’s Day breakfast. They’re warm and fluffy, topped with all of our favorite things! Instead of just making it a regular old Valentine’s Day breakfast turn yours into an annual Pancakes and Pajamas party for the whole family. Cutting pancakes out in heart shapes and topping with sweet treats turns even store-bought pancakes into a Valentine’s Day treat. Invite everyone to join you for breakfast with this cute Pancakes and Pajamas invitation. All the text is editable so you can transform it into the perfect Valentine’s Day breakfast invitation.
DIY Valentine’s Day Treat Bags
One of the best parts of Valentine’s Day is receiving sweet and tasty treats. Instead of spending a fortune on expensive chocolates and gifts, create your own DIY Valentine’s Day treat bags to give to your family. They also make lovely gifts for your kids’ teachers.
Eskimo Kisses Treat Bag Topper
Mini S’more Kit Treat Bag Topper
Free Popcorn Treat Bag Topper
Gummy Sweet Tic Tac Toe
On a sheet of paper create a Tic Tac Toe board (also known as noughts and crosses). Instead of regular game pieces use ‘X’ and ‘O’ shaped gummy sweets as your game pieces. Valentine’s Day rules say the winner eats all!
Valentine’s Day Themed Packed Lunch
What a sweet surprise it was to open our lunch boxes at school only to find some tasty treats inside! On Valentine’s Day, put together a themed lunch for your kids. Heart-shaped sandwiches, sliced strawberries and adding heart-shaped sprinkles to yoghurt pots are all cute ways to spoil the kids this Valentine’s Day.
Valentine’s Day Heart-Shaped Pizzas for Dinner
While takeaway pizza is great, there is something about making pizza from scratch that makes them extra delicious. These days you can buy pre-made pizza dough which saves you tons of time. Roll out your dough and cut the pizzas out into heart shapes. You can use a heart-shaped cake tin to get the shape right by cutting around it. Then add your tomato sauce and favorite toppings and pop them in the oven for baking.
Valentine’s Day PJs
Nowadays most families get matching pajamas for Christmas so why not do the same for Valentine’s Day? The kids will look super cute in their red Valentine’s themed pajamas and will love that mom and dad are matching them. Try snapping a cute family photo in your PJs every year to look back on when the kids are grown up.
Family Mailboxes
You may have your own mailbox at work and your kids at school and most of the time the mail isn’t exactly exciting. Change that with your own mailboxes at home to bring out every Valentine’s Day. Have every family member pop a love note or treat into each person’s mailbox to open up on Valentine’s Day. Mail just got exciting again!
Valentine’s Day Photo Shoot
Valentine’s Day photo shoots aren’t only reserved for babies and toddlers. Get the kids decked out in their cutest Valentine’s Day attire and ready to pose for some sweet family photos. Sure, the teens may cringe but when they’re adults they’ll thank you for making them do it!
Valentine’s Day Scrapbook
Every year, create a scrapbook page filled with notes from everyone with all the reasons you love each other. You can include any family pictures, especially if you do the matching PJ tradition or Valentine’s photo shoot.
Valentine’s Day Cookie Decorating
We love baking with our kids, as messy as it can get, and Valentine’s Day is no exception. Baking and decorating Valentine’s Day cookies with the kids is such a fun activity. Make it extra special and give them each a Valentine’s Day cookie kit. Get them to whip up their own batch and then once they’re baked and cooled, have a number of icings and toppings for them to use to decorate their cookies.
Valentine’s Day Scavenger Hunt
Instead of just handing over the Valentine’s Day loot, have your kids go on a fun scavenger hunt around the house and garden to find their Valentine’s treats. You can use these editable scavenger hunt cards to customise your clues.
Valentine’s Day Books
Add a new book to your library every year because after all, books last a lot longer than candy and chocolate. It could be a Valentine’s themed book, poetry book or short stories book that you can read together with the kids which is great for stimulating young minds and improving their vocabularies.
Let Love Grow
With spring time near, February is a great time to get stuck into the garden and planting seedlings. Every year, pick out a special flower or shrub to plant in the garden and watch your love grow each year!
Fun days in February
With February being the month of love, there are some great wacky days of observance during the month. Some that’ll make you laugh, others that will leave you scratching your head, all with the potential to create lasting memories for your kids!
1 February: Candy Making Day – you don’t need to be Willy Wonka to make your own candy! Look up some recipes on Pinterest for DIY candy recipes.
2 February: Crepe Day – making your own crepes from scratch is easier than you think. Follow Lou’s simple and delicious recipe here. Fill with sliced banana, berries, whipped cream or even Nutella. Mmm!
4 February: Sweater Day – spring hasn’t sprung just yet, so it’s still technically sweater weather. Bonus points if you all wear sweaters that match!
5 February: World Nutella Day – can you believe such a day exists…a whole 24 hours where you can eat Nutella straight from the jar without anyone being allowed to judge you.
6 February: Ice Cream For Breakfast Day – the kids will love you for this one and will certainly look forward to this annual tradition!
7 February: Wave All Your Fingers At Your Neighbors Day – sure, you may look a little odd but a plain old wave is so boring, why not wave all your fingers at your neighbors instead as you walk by!
9 February: Toothache Day – toothache is no fun so it’s always better to stop it before it even begins. Make February 9th your annual day for dental check ups and keep the toothache at bay.
11 February: White T-Shirt Day – we love a family that matches and this one’s real easy. Today all you need to do is throw on your best white tee and voila, you all match!
13 February: Get A Different Name Day – ever wished you were given a different name at birth? Well todays the day to test it out! Have everyone in the family be called only by the name they wish they were called for the whole day and see how much it changes year on year.
16 February: Pancake Day – another foodie day we can totally get behind! Pancake Day is a great excuse to have pancakes all day long. Savory pancakes count as dinner, right?
17 February: Random Acts of Kindness Day – one of our favorite days and a great opportunity to teach our kids to be kind and caring people. Use our printable random acts of kindness cards to challenge each other to perform a random act of kindness today, and maybe it could turn into a habit in time.
18 February: Drink Wine Day – this ones for the parents! Not that you needed an excuse but today drink that wine like it’s nobody’s business!
19 February: Best Friends Day – friends are the family we choose so it’s a great annual tradition to spend a special day with our best friends. Organise play dates for the kids and get some one-on-one time in with your bestie.
20 February: Love Your Pet Day – our fur-kids creep into our hearts and deserve all the love and attention every day of the week, but today give them a little extra lovin’ with their favorite treat, playtime in the park or a walk through the neighborhood.
22 February: Play More Cards Day – card games are such a fun family activity so pick your favorites and play a card game or two as a family after dinner.
24 February: Pink Shirt Day – yup, it is what it sounds like. Today everyone has to wear a pink shirt!
27 February: International Polar Bear Day – polar bears are such beautiful animals. In honor of these arctic creatures, challenge the whole family to swim a length in the pool. With the water still being pretty cold this challenge is called the Polar Bear Challenge. The kids will love it despite what the squeals and sqwauks might have you think.
28 February: Tooth Fairy Day – the mystical and magical tooth fairy comes to visit when little ones lose their baby teeth! Get things prepped for the tooth fairies visits with our adorable tooth fairy printables.
As the month of love, February and Valentine’s Day itself is about a lot more than a fancy greeting card and bunch of flowers. With a little creativity you can create fun Valentine’s Day traditions for the whole family to enjoy. Much like you reminisce about your own Valentine’s traditions as a child, your kids will do the same when they’re grown and hopefully keep their favorite ones going.
